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There are many references to Medusa in Greek and later Roman literature. She was one of the three Gorgons and is the best known of these monsters. They are usually depicted as three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying faces’ or looks that could turn anything to stone. The first known reference to a Gorgon is in Homer. In the Iliad. Homer refers to a single Gorgon and does not mention Medusa. The didactic poet Hesiod (700 BC) stated that there were three Gorgons and they were Stheno and Euryale and Medusa. The name Medusa has been interpreted as meaning the ‘Queen’. Hesiod wrote that they were the children of two primeval gods. They lived on the Western Ocean and they were worshipped by the Libyans. The Athenian tradition was that the Gorgon was a monster that was born of Gaia, the earth goddess and fought alongside the Titans in their war with the Olympians. The Gorgon was later killed by Athena. In the Hellenistic period the myths relate that there were three Gorgons. Two of the Gorgons were immortal, and one was mortal, and she that was Medusa. Roman writers often wrote about the mortal Gorgon and Ovid has helped to create the popular image that we have of the female monster<ref> Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.770</ref>.